Their Forever Family
by IaspiretobeDarcy828
Summary: In which the Avengers, in their own way, realize that they have found their family. Title is from "The Fosters". Stony and Clintasha. Long oneshot.


Disclaimer: I don't own anybody. I just like putting them in situations to make sure they realize how lucky they are.

A/N: These are not in chronological order, just the order they came to me. I don't have a beta, so please forgive my mistakes.

* * *

In Which the Avengers, Each in Their Own Way, Realize That They Have Found Their Family

Tony

Growing up, Tony was constantly lonely. It was the devastating kind of loneliness, that pressed uncomfortably down on him, making the corners of his mouth point towards the floor and his shoulders curve forward.

That's not to say Tony was alone in his house. No, his father or mother was often there, just in a separate room, too caught up in their work or drugs to even realize that their son was being crushed by sadness. And if they were in the room they were still miles away, mind far, far away from their bright eyed son that was begging for their attention.

So, to make Tony's point, he was always lonely. And it didn't really change from childhood to his teenage years. He had thousands of other students surrounding him, professor for him to talk to, but to them he was just the short boy with the too big mouth and brain. Sure, some people tried to be his friends, but when they found out that he wasn't going to give them money (though in his weaker moments he thought about it, bribing them to stay with him) they were gone, just like his mother and father.

After he graduated, Tony expected it to get a little better. He was older, not by much, but in the real world age didn't matter that much, right?

Wrong.

If he spoke to people older than him, he was considered an immature boy who had too much money to know what to deal with. (Only later would people realize that his immaturity had nothing to do with his age.) If he tried to talk to people his age he found it incredibly hard not to become bored as he struggled to connect to them. Their life was incredibly different from Tony's, and he had never been very good at understanding people.

So he remained lonely.

There were bright spots in the darkness, as there always is. Jarvis, the real one, for one, and there was also Rhodey, and then Pepper. But even at their best moments, they loved Tony, but they didn't really get him. His brain was running at a million miles an hour and even when he was dumbing himself down they didn't quite understand where his self-defeatist was coming from, because they had normal, loving parents, and people that loved them without having to buy them.

And that is why, when Natasha asks if he is coming to the grocery store with them, he becomes confused. It's the simplest thing, but he has never once gone shopping with somebody. Pepper always said that he got to distracted and that in turn made her distracted, and Jarvis had tried once, but Howard had quickly put a stop to that.

"What?" He asked, his fingers actually stilling on his StarkPad.

"Grocery shopping," Natasha repeated, clearly thinking he is the stupidest being on the planet. "You know, to get food, seeing as how we ate it all." She gestured toward where the rest of the team is lingering by the door, jackets on. "Everyone is coming."

"Sure," Tony agreed, so startled that his brain doesn't give the usual command for his mouth to start complaining about how they have people Tony pays to do this kind of stuff for them.

And so they go. Tony mainly stays next to Steve, his safety blanket in strange and unusual situations, his hand clutched tight in Steve's, watching in bewilderment as Thor picks out Bruce's favorite type of tea, and Clint grabs Steve's usual type of pickles as they pass it without even thinking, and his own hand reach out to take Thor's most favorite type of Poptarts off the shelf and knock them into the cart.

It all becomes too much when he sees Natasha grab the type of cheese he likes, even though everyone else thinks it is disgusting.

"How are we doing this?" Tony asked, because for all his smarts and doctorates, this is beyond any equation he has even considered.

"We live together," Natasha said, raising a single unimpressed eyebrow as she guides the shopping cart Clint is pushing away from the aisle full of glass wine bottles. Tony just looks at Steve, needing a better explanation. Steve has on the kind of face he only gets when he's about to say something that only he can get away with.

"It's because we're a family, Tony," He explained.

Huh. As cheesy as Steve is, he does have a knack for being right.

* * *

Steve

Steve's birthday starts with a nightmare.

It seems appropriate for his first birthday away from his time.

He gets out of his bed, ignoring the tears in the sheets that mock him, and pulls on a t-shirt and running shorts. Running usually clears his head and helps him remember why he isn't just giving up. As his heels pound against the ground his new team comes to his head.

Natasha and Clint are probably the most dangerous people he will ever meet, but when he thinks of them all he can see is Natasha at two in the morning, dressed in one of Clint's old t-shirts and eating from a carton of ice cream while watching "Dirty Dancing" and Clint next to Tony on the couch, both men trying to hide the fact that they were crying when the father of a lion died in a Disney movie.

Thor and Bruce he thinks of next. Thor might be able to call up thunder and lightning whenever he wishes, but the man is really just a huge ball of energy, like an overgrown puppy. And though Hulk is devastatingly destructive, the only thing dangerous about his human counterpart is how good of a cook he is.

And Tony? Well Tony was everything about the future that Steve hated. He was flashy, he said one thing when he meant another, he lived and breathed technology, and he was extravagant and thoughtless with money. By all rights, Steve should have hated him.

But then he talked to Tony, and he actually _saw_ Tony, and it was so, so much worse. Because instead of hating Tony, Steve absolutely adored him. For all he chastised Tony for his crass jokes, whenever he was around to hear them he couldn't help but crack a smile. Every exasperated eye roll at Tony's antic was accompanied with a painful heart flutter and whenever he needed something, it was Tony he sought out.

It would have been easier, if Steve had hated Tony. Then he wouldn't have to worry about hiding the blush that stained his cheeks and neck and entire body when Tony said something that could even remotely be deciphered as a compliment. He wouldn't be so worried every time he spent the day in Tony's lab that he was boring the death out of the man.

Steve smacked into something, and quickly backpedalled, fist up in preparation to fight the enemy that had gotten in his way.

Instead he found a wall.

Well. That was embarrassing. Steve should have known better though, than to think of Tony while doing something that even required the littlest bit of concentration. The man entirely took over his head whenever Steve thought about how he took over his heart.

"Did you just run into a wall?" Tony's voice, slightly changed by the suit he was in, asked, sounding amused.

"Shut up," Steve said without heat, rubbing a hand over his burning neck. He stared at Tony expectantly, waiting for him to mention his birthday, but he said nothing, merely looking at Steve with glowing blue eyes.

Steve immediately felt foolish for considering the fact that Tony would remember his birthday. Tony barely remembered his own name at times, why would he remember Steve's birthday?

He had hopes for the rest of the team though. So when he gets back and they barely acknowledge him as he sits down to the breakfast Bruce made him, he feels like his gut is made of lead. The day passes in similar manner, no mention of his birthday at all, or even the fact that today is the fourth of July. It's just like a regular day, and just like a regular day Steve retires after dinner to take a shower.

Unlike a regular day, however, when he gets out of the shower he found Tony lounging on his bed.

"Tony!" He cried in shock, hands going to the towel on his hips to ensure that it stayed secure. "What are you doing in my room?"

"Hey Steve," Tony said leisurely, turning off his StarkPad and looking up easily, as if Steve wasn't half-naked in front of him. "I'm waiting for you, actually."

"Waiting for me?" Steve stuttered, trying to keep his mind in places he has deemed safe, and not other context that phrase could have been uttered in.

"Uh-huh," Tony nodded. "So go get dressed and come back out here, I have something I need to talk to you about."

Steve grabbed his clothes and retreated back into the bathroom, panicking. Did Tony somehow know of his feelings for him and was going to yell at him, disgusted? God, he was so stupid. He pulled on his pants and shirt and then walked out, sitting down next to Tony.

"Look Tony, I'm sorry," He started, utterly humiliated to find that his eyes were filling with tears.

"Are you _crying_?" Tony yelped, scrambling to his knees. He pulled away the hands that Steve had put on his watering eyes away. "You are!"

"Sorry, it's just, I couldn't help it, it just happened, and you're going to tell me you hate me on my birthday, and all I really wanted was to spend a day with you guys and for you to like me, but no one seems to remember that it is my birthday," Steve babbled. He probably would have continued on for a while had Tony's lips not pressed to his midsentence and then pulled away quickly.

"We're idiots," Tony said, pulling Steve to his feet quickly.

"That's not a very nice-" Steve started, but was interrupted as the door was pulled open and his team's shouts of surprises sounded.

Steve's birthday ended with him curled on the couch with Tony pressed to his side, cake in each of their laps as they watched "Mulan", with his team sprawled around him.

It seemed appropriate that Steve's first birthday out of the ice was spent with his newly found family.

* * *

Clint-

At first Clint is hesitant to join the Avengers, worried that there will be too many of them, surrounding him on either sides for him to ever feel comfortable. There is a reason that he liked to be up high, and that is because if you are the highest then no one can you shoot you from above.

A small part of him, the part that he rarely acknowledges, knows that he also doesn't want to live with the rest of them it is because he fears that they will blame him for Phil's death as he does.

So, like the brave man he is, he sent Natasha in first, biding his time in their crappy apartment that probably had two personal touches added by them in total, eating peanut butter out of the can and cheese doodles. Then he is called away for a mission, one of his rare solo missions that should only last about a week.

When he comes back he is tired to the core, barely able to lift his arms to put the key in the door, and he goes straight to his bed, collapsing bonelessly on it, his head going straight into Natasha's lap.

He sleeps for at least twelve hours but when he awakes he's still in Natasha's lap, her fingers running through his short blond hair. Her unoccupied hand is attached to a StarkPad, rapidly typing something to someone. She sends it before looking down at him, not smiling, but her eyes soft the way they only get when she is looking at Clint.

"Who're you texting?" Clint asked, sitting up and stretching.

"Tony wanted to know what you like for breakfast so he can buy it for Steve to cook," Natasha said dryly. Clint raised an eyebrow.

"It's Tony now, is it?" He teased. "What happened to Stark?"

"Shut up," Natasha said without any heat, scooting down on the bed and pressing a kiss to Clint's lips before getting up. "Go take a shower, you smell rancid. And hurry, because we're leaving in twenty minutes for the tower."

As the water rushes over Clint's head, he has to admit that if any recommendation is good enough, it's Natasha's. So when he is finished he grabs his SHIELD issued duffel bag full of clothes and follows the love of his life into a place he's not quite sure he's going to love.

And it is everything Clint could ever hope for.

He has someone to cook for him (Steve), someone to play pranks on without being afraid of being maimed (Tony), and someone who he can talk to about the serious stuff in life (Bruce). But more importantly, he has people surrounding him constantly, so much that he forgets what it is like to want to build a nest just so he can get away from the world.

Everything is great.

And then he realizes that they are excluding him.

It takes a while for him to realize, because they do it tactfully, when he is usually busy with Natasha in the gym, sparring. But one time Natasha decides that instead of sparring she wants to get ice cream. Clint is retreating, because in retrospect, commenting on how her time of the month was coming was not the brightest thing he has ever done, and he scrams down the hallway to the living room, finding it completely deserted.

"Where is everybody?" He asks Natasha, and to his surprise she stops chasing him suddenly and looks around.

"I don't know," She claims innocently, though Clint knows her well enough to recognize the lie.

"Did they go out without inviting us?" Clint asks, because that's a bit insulting, he told Tony that next time they went for tacos he wanted to come with. Natasha remains silent and when he asks Jarvis all he gets is silence as well. He resorts to wandering away the tower, finally spotting them through the glass of Tony's workshop. When they spot him they freak out, scattering about and lurching to their feet, and Clint feels absolutely terrible.

They obviously were doing something they didn't want him to know about, and all he can think of is them trying to get him off the team, because he is not like them, because he is _bad_.

"Having a party without me?" He asks lightly the next time he sees them, at dinner time.

"If you aren't invited you aren't invited," Tony shrugs flippantly, and Clint falls silent, scooping meat into his taco without another word.

He had thought these guys were different. But it seemed like they were just like everybody else, content to leave him all alone, out on his own.

He's so caught up in his sorrow and anticipation that he's going to get kicked out that he almost doesn't notice when Steve asked for the bread in sign language. Actual sign language, not just pointing and gestures that are usually used when Clint takes out his hearing aids.

He figures that the Captain must have picked something up in his time in the army, and passes him the bread without a word, forgetting it.

Then Thor asks him for the extra pillow by him, in sign language. He launches it at the blond lug, hitting Bruce in the crossfires, and Bruce swears at him quite proficiently in sign language, and it hits him.

_That's what you've been doing in your workshop?_ He signs to Tony, fighting a smile.

_What else? _ Tony gives a flippant shrug, his mouth filled with buttery popcorn.

_How? _ Clint signs, because honestly, he is perplexed.

_I learned after I read you're file,_ Tony signs. He points to himself. _Genius._

_ And then he taught us,_ Bruce added. Clint settled back against the couch, leaning against Natasha's shoulder.

Huh.

_What'd you think we were doing? _Steve asked, bewildered.

I though it didn't have a family, Clint thought. But he didn't say that. God, no.

He had a reputation to uphold, after all.

* * *

Bruce-

Tony has Steve. Clint has Natasha. Thor has Jane.

Bruce has no one.

It's exactly like high school, when all his friends started to become mature, to get boyfriends and girlfriends, and he was still the scrawny little kid that couldn't even talk to girls without blushing. And he feels foolish for even thinking this, but he's worried that they're all going to disappear into their own little worlds and Bruce will be left on his own again.

Alone is bad, Bruce has realized. Alone leaves him to his thoughts. It makes him reconsider life and the benefits of living.

Alone makes him put a bullet in his mouth.

"You look like you're not paying attention to me," Tony chastised, pulling Bruce out of his thoughts. Behind him on the ratty couch kept in the workshop Steve snorted. "Quiet Steve," He waved a hand at the offending blond and then turned back to Bruce. "You're not allowed to not pay attention to me,"

"I'm paying attention," Bruce assured him, though he was not quite sure he liked what he saw. It wasn't as if he begrudged his friends their happy relationships, and it wasn't as if they were ignoring him now.

Sure, when Tony and Steve started making out in the middle of the room, they tended to forget he was sitting right next to them, but there was always Clint or Natasha to invite him to their movie night, or Jane to talk science to.

So it wasn't as if it had already started. No, it was the anticipation, the waiting for the other shoe to drop that was making Bruce toss and turn in his bed, struggling to find sleep.

Because good things were not for Bruce.

He'd had good things once. He had Betty, but she could not lose her father over Bruce, and she had left him. He had his experiments, but then he had made one mistake, and it ruined his life. He had his brain, but then even that turned on him, hosting an unwanted guest that made everything so much more difficult for Bruce.

It seemed only fair that he was going to lose this good thing to.

The next time they had to fight the Hulk was a little closer to the surface than usual, brought up by Bruce's tension. Bruce was almost glad to submit to the rage, to allow himself to go away for just a little bit.

When he came back, he was in a cave and absolutely freezing. His body was always out of sorts after he came back from the Hulk, hungry and cold and shivering and sweating all at once, but this cold was different. He opened his eyes, surprised to find all of his team staring back at him.

"Where are we?" He asked, taking the jacket Tony offered him and covering as much of himself as he could.

"Somewhere cold," Clint offered. Bruce searched through his memories. Usually he got bits and glimpses of his time as the Hulk. He saw a sallow face, a stick, maybe a wand, pointed at them, and felt the Hulk get angrier in his memories.

"A sorcerer?" He checked.

"I hate magic," Tony affirmed, tucking himself under Steve's arm. Bruce looked around, seeing Clint and Natasha twined around each other, and Thor's bulking arms around Jane.

"Why is Jane here?" He asked before he could stop himself.

"We were done fighting and had him in our custody," Natasha explained. "Jane wanted to take some observations of his wand, and he somehow broke out of the Asgardian restraints."

Bruce nodded, this making sense to him, and with a sinking heart he realizes that this is the time when he is going to be on his own. The others have someone to keep them warm that they don't mind snuggling with. And Bruce is all on his own. He starts shaking more persistently and Tony looks incredulously at him.

"Did the Hulk damage your brain?" He asked. Bruce looked at him uncomprehendingly. "Get over here, you idiot, are you trying to freeze to death?"

"Oh," Bruce said dumbly, shuffling awkwardly into the space between Steve and Clint. Instantly the Avengers compress, Natasha's feet sliding under Bruce's thigh as she sits sideways in Clint's lap, the arm Steve doesn't have wrapped around Tony embracing Bruce around the shoulders, Thor and Jane scooting closer so that Jane and Natasha are side by side.

It's cheesy, but Bruce knows with utter certainty that the warmth he is feeling is not all because of the body heat they are giving him.

* * *

Thor-

"Thor, you have one coming at you," Tony warned him. Thor turned, by now so used to comms that he didn't even blink as he connected his hammer with the day's foe. Tony continued. "I'm thinking that we should get sushi after the battle."

"I hate sushi," Steve complained, punching a foe hard enough that Thor can hear it over the comm.

"You say that, but I distinctly remember you stealing half of Tony's food off of his plate," Clint joined the conversation. "I would rather have Chinese, though."

"Chinese makes you gassy," Natasha reminded him bluntly.

"I wish to have pizza again!" Thor suggested, knocking a foe out of the air.

"Pizza!" Hulk agreed, dashing past Thor.

"Pizza does sound good," Coulson agreed.

"Only if we get the kind I like," Tony said.

"You like it so greasy though," Clint complained.

"You guys do realize that the comm unit was given to you to talk about the battle, right?" Fury asked, and Thor abruptly remembers that the Director was sitting in on this battle.

"We do that too," Steve said. Thor nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, I have something to share with the team!" He said.

"Oooh, what?" Tony asked eagerly.

That's the last thing Thor is aware of before his world turns black.

"Release me!" Thor demanded, straining against the bonds around his ankles and wrists.

"Now, now, that temper is not needed," He is scolded. He turned towards the voice, surprised to find someone he recognized.

"Ahlan," He addressed the dark man that he and Loki had once met in their childhood. He had tried to trap them, but with quick thinking on Loki's part they had managed to escape. Ahlan chuckled.

"No family here to save you now," Ahlan said, reading his mind. "Though by the way things I remember it, you're family wouldn't be much help to you anyway. Turned on you, didn't he?"

"Loki was simply misguided." Thor defended, because even though his brother had done terrible things, Loki was his brother and he loved him.

"Perhaps, but he no longer considers himself your brother," Ahlan smirked, pressing his staff into Thor's temple. Thor jerked away, though he could move far. "You have no more family, admit it."

Thor wanted to protest, but the man was right and he knew it, smirking as he cast a spell on Thor.

_"I would be a better king than you will ever be," The schoolboy taunted. Thor huffed and went back to his work. Mother was always telling him that he should ignore people who made him angry. _

_ "A pig would be a better king than Thor," The schoolboy continued. He snickered. "No, a bilgesnipe."_

_ The schoolboy was knocked backwards over his seat by the fist that flew, but it was not Thor's. _

_ "My brother is a far better person than you could even imagine being," Loki defended. The bully stood up and looked to his lackeys. _

_ "Well? Get them," He ordered. Thor grabbed Loki's hand and ran, leaving the classroom and pulling Loki down random hallways until they had enough of an advantage on the bullies to duck into a closet. _

_ "Shh," Loki chastised as Thor stumbled and knocked over a bucket, watching the bullies through the slats of the door. _

_ "Thank you, brother," Thor said, standing next to Loki and wrapping an arm around his skinny shoulders. _

_ "That's what brothers are for," Loki shrugged._

When Thor wakes up his face is covered in tears. Loki used to be so good, so kind, and loving. But he had changed. And Thor was impossibly angry at Ahlan for taking advantage of that.

"Yes, it is so sad, to know one has no family," Ahlan said.

"That'd be where you're wrong, as he does," Tony said, zooming into the room and blasting Ahlan in the chest.

"Yeah, you should really try to keep up, you know, Twitter, Myspace," Steve said.

"Or did your family forget to tell you about those things?" Clint asked. Thor stood up, whipping Mjölnir around.

"For mine certainly did not!" He said.

And it is only later, when they are all sprawled around on the couch, consuming pizza so greasy that it is dripping off, does Thor realize what truth were in his words.

Ahlan was wrong. He had more of a family know than he ever did.

* * *

Natasha-

As a spy, Natasha knows that not only should she trust facts, but she should trust her instincts.

That's why she refuses to acknowledge the fact that she might love her teammates.

Even when both Steve and Clint are away on a mission and she doesn't hesitate to curl up next to Tony, her head on his shoulder, as they watch TV.

Even when she realizes that she just initiated a hug with Steve when they had won a board game.

Even when she kisses Clint in from of them, bearing her greatest weakness to them.

Because that would just be stupid. Love is for children. She does not love her teammates.

That is what she tells herself as she prepares herself for a solo mission. She is not sad to be away from them for a couple days. She will not miss them.

So she keeps telling herself.

It's distracting her, when in the field, this denial, and she knows that she should just admit it, even if it is just to herself. But she can't. Love is for children.

She didn't get out fast enough.

She cannot believe she didn't get out fast enough.

She knew the bomb was going to go off, and she was making her way out, but she had caught sight of a shiny rock, the stupidest thing, and thought about how Thor would have liked it, because he was doing some sort of project with sparkly things, and then an enemy had caught up, and in dueling him, she had lost precious time.

She got caught in the blast.

She's reluctant to wake up, unsure if she will find herself looking into enemies' eyes, but then a hand tightens around hers and she knows it's Clint, has memorized the callouses on that hand.

"Hey Nat," He said softly as she opens her eyes.

"Hi," Natasha said, looking around. Tony is curled against Steve, who is sprawled in the one sofa of the room. Thor is asleep on the floor, only a sheet as a cushion, and Bruce is curled up on a chair in a tight ball.

"They wanted to be here when you woke up," Clint explained.

Natasha is terrified.

All these people she loves, who love her, are weaknesses, points where people can hit her the hardest.

She hates weaknesses. They make her feel exposed and unsafe.

"Calm down Nat," Clint said, taking both of her hands in his.

"All those weaknesses," Natasha whispered, trying to control her panic. "So many weak chinks in my armor."

"Hey," Clint chucked her chin. "Nat, you're okay. As much as they make weak chinks in your armor, they are there to watch your back and make sure that no one can get to your armor."

If there is one thing that Natasha understands, it is battle references, and it calms her enough that she stops panicking just as Tony wakes up.

"Tasha!" He fell off of the sofa and crawled to Natasha's bedside. "How are you, are you okay? I told the doctors to give you the most comfortable bed, I'm not sure if they listened, they wouldn't let me test it out for you."

"Because she needed it, Tony," Steve said, stretching and smiling at Natasha with bleary blue eyes.

No, what Natasha needed was these guys.


End file.
